Marine killed in crash planned to surprise brother on first day of school

A Colorado Marine killed in a crash in central Utah last week was on his way home to surprise his little brother on the first day of school.

Twenty-year-old Lance Cpl. Brennan Ching of Fort Collins, Colorado, died Friday in a rollover crash near Salina, Utah. He was traveling with a fellow Marine from Las Flores, California. The second Marine survived and was taken to a hospital.

Their mother Sue Vicary says Alex talked about his older brother every day and came up with different wishes to try to bring him home. She said her 8-year-old picked up a leaf and wished that his brother would come back.

"All these times, he's believed and seen that his wishes would come true," she told the paper. "But there's no amount of leaves he can pull to make that come true."

The newspaper published a story about Ching coming home to surprise Alex last March after the boy sent a letter to the Easter bunny.